I'm going into eighth grade and I just found out that I made marching band as a pit percussionist. The reason I'm in pit percussion is because I have bipolar and the band director says it would be too stressful to be a marcher. One problem, I've never touched a drum stick in my life. I'm a clarinetist and I don't know if I can do it. How hard it it to learn percussion?

You shouldn't have too much problems with percusion. Whether you play clarinet or percussion you have to know you're rhythms. And if it is xylophone or bells, etc you need to know notes. It's a little bit of work at first to learn the technique of whichever pit instrument(s) you need to learn; but it's easy to keep it up once you learn it.

Down the road learning percussion can be beneficial. While I was in college I was also playing with a professional orchestra on my Horn. One rehearsal the percussionist who was supposed to play xylophone didn't show up. The lead percussionist was also my percussion teacher at school. Sine the piece we were playing only had two horn parts, he asked me to cover the xylophone part. I ended up doing the concert AND getting paid double scale!!

Last year I did a concert with a chorus. There was one piece that needed a little bell part played. The conductor asked if anyone could cover it; no one wanted to but me. So I played a little bell part, maybe 20 measures total and I got paid double scale.

Have fun in the percussion pit!!!

Thank you for your help, I ended up having a wonderful experience playing the keyboard (our show was Phantom of the Opera) and now have so many new friends, pit and marchers. I am now completely invested in pit for marching season and am looking forward to my 2nd season as a pit percussionist in Golden Pride of Washington, Indiana.

Hey ! I am Also a clarinet Player who is in Pit!!! I am Section Captain of pit and enjoy every minute of it!! I very proud of you for being open and willing to learn something new... I hope you enjoyed this marching season , and will enjoy many more to come

I'm glad you're fitting in so well! I'm an oboist, and going from percussion to oboe and back to percussion was no easy feat. Congrats and I wish you anohter great year of band!